Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolde of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Thinking Talmudist podcast.

All right. Welcome back, everybody, to the Thinking Talmudist. It's so wonderful to be here. We are resuming the Talmud that we studied last week and the week before about the destruction of the temple. We mentioned last week at the end of our episode about Titus. Titus replaced Vespasian as the commander of the Jerusalem unit, and his job by the Romans was to destroy the temple.
He did so, and we know that he desecrated the temple. He didn't only destroy it, but he also tried to do the most repulsive acts in the temple. He wanted to violate the holiness of the temple, and the Talmud records this, and we now continue the narrative that we started last week. Ki hava komayis, when Titus was dying, amr lehu, he told those that were present, likliyuha lehugavra, burn that man, meaning burn himself, me. U'levadre lekitme ashev yame, and scatter the ashes over the seven seas.
Diloh lashkecheh elohad yehudah eloikme bedino, so that the God of the Jewish people will not find me and stand me in judgment. Okay, so here's a guy who understands that there is a day of judgment. There is a day of judgment, and that day of judgment is something that we will all experience. It's something that every single person around the planet, every person that's ever faced this world will experience, a day of ultimate judgment, and there's no way to run away from it.
There's no way to hide from it, and by the way, if we focus our lives on good things, there's nothing for us to fear either. The Mishnah keeps reminding us, imagine every day that today is your last day. If you knew that you were only going to live one day, today, that's it, what would you do? You'd be nice to people, you would make sure that you call your family, call whoever your loved ones are, tell them how much you love them, do that today.
The fact that you have tomorrow also is a bonus, but a person should live like today is the last day, and if we do so, it definitely will enhance the way we live our lives, making sure that every experience is an experience that we cherish. So if you're going on a vacation, you'll enjoy the views. If you see a beautiful sunset, you'll enjoy it. You're eating delicious food, you'll be thankful. But if we're just living today is just another day, then we could miss out on the pleasures
of life, which is the reason we had, we started our class today, we had so many blessings here from our delicious brunch. Everyone is reciting blessings over the food that they're eating, and that's what the purpose, the purpose of those blessings is for us to enjoy, to take a moment and realize how blessed you are. Take a moment and realize what a gift it is that we have food that we can eat, kosher food that's so delicious.
So the Gomorrah cites a related incident, Unculus Bar Chronicus Bar Ahose de Titus. Unculus, now anybody know who Unculus was? Titus was, so he was a composer of the interpretive Aramaic translation of the Torah. He was not a Jewish person, as we see here. He was the son of Chronicus and the son of Titus' sister. So he was a nephew of Titus. He wanted to convert to Judaism. He went and raised the spirit of Titus through necromancy. Unculus asked him, who is prominent in that world?
The world to come. Titus answered him, Yisrael, the Jewish people. Unculus asked him, should I join them? Should I convert to Judaism? Armalei Titus answered him, their laws are numerous and you will not be able to fulfill them. There are so many laws. Go and attack them in that world, the world of the living, and you will become a leader. It's very easy, by the way, for someone to become, if you wonder why, there's been an outcry against right-wing antisemitism.
You have all of these personalities, whether it be Candace Owens or Tucker Carlson or this Nick Fuentes or all of these other personalities who started, and even Matt, what's his name? The guy who was from Florida, he was a congressman. He was nominated by Trump to be an attorney general and then he got thrown out, Matt Gaetz. So also he's like, you see, you wonder what's going on with these people? What's wrong with them? We discussed this here previously, left-wing antisemitism is already an old story.
But right-wing, that jars us all. We mentioned previously that Hashem waking us up and that is giving us a wake-up call that we shouldn't feel safe and secure anywhere. We shouldn't feel. We shouldn't rest comfortably thinking that, oh, this is the place antisemitism can't reach. It can reach any place. Antisemitism is a tool of the Almighty, as we mentioned in our previous Talmud. It's a tool of the Almighty to corral his people, to come back to his ways, to get his
people to come and do the right thing and to focus on what's important. But here we see something from Titus. He says, if you want to become famous, just hate on the Jews. Easy. You'll become a leader. You'll get followers. You'll get clickbait, whatever you want. You start saying negative things about the Jews, you're a hero. This is Titus. This is over 2,000 years ago. It's written here in the Talmud, an amazing thing.
Just go and attack them in the world, in this world, the world of the living, and you'll become a leader. People are going to be like, wow, what inspiration. What else can we hear? That's the way the world sees this nonsense. And he brings a verse for it, because everything in the Talmud is sourced. He says, Israel's enemies have become leaders. And this is a verse that we recite in Lamentations, where we talk about the destruction of the temple.
We say, those who afflicted the Jewish people, they became the leaders. They became the leaders. And this is a tragic reality. Whoever persecutes, Israel becomes a leader. In this case, Onkelos asks Titus, what is your punishment? Amar-lei, Titus answered him. And now we're in 57a in Tractate Kitten. He is punished with the very, I am punished with the very fate that I set for myself. Every day, the ashes, my ashes are gathered and are judged.
And then the ashes are taken and burnt, right, so whatever's left, they're burnt, and they're scattered over the seven seas again. Every day. Every day he's being judged again. Every day he's being burnt again. Every day he's being scattered in the seven seas. Ozal aske lebilam benegida, Onkelos went and raised the spirit of bilam through necromancy. Now, if you're not familiar with this, the Torah says that we're not allowed to do this, but that's applicable for Jews.
There is a, we're living in a very physical world, so it's hard for us to imagine, but there are spirits all around us. There are souls flying around in the world. And with the right type of force of evil powers, you can grab one of those souls and communicate with them. It's something which many, many Jews who served in the IDF, you know, late night shifts, what are they going to do? They're sitting bored.
It's before they had phones, before they can scroll on TikTok and watch Torch videos, you know. So what are they going to do? So they would do this. They would do seances and they would do all of these things and they would call different types of souls. This is true. I can show you videos and recordings of people talking about it, how it brought them back to their own Judaism, where they were so freaked out by what was communicated to them that
they're like, OK, I'm going back to Hashem. I'm not taking a chance. Like this soul is telling me, go and learn Torah, go and go. And here you see what Titus is saying. Who are the elevated in the world to come? Those who served Hashem. So this is something the Torah says very, very clearly in Deuteronomy, not to do this. Not to pull souls from other worlds, not to communicate with it. It says, You should be simple. You should be pure.
You should be innocent with Hashem your God. Don't pull, don't play the games. It's one of the reasons we don't go to all of these card readers and all of those. Just stay pure and simple. Our relationship with Hashem needs to be with simplicity. So the Gemara says that Unkel has pulled the soul of Bilaam. You remember who Bilaam was. You see, Bilaam was the prophet that was hired by Balak, the king, to curse the Jewish people. Unkel has asked him,
Who is prominent in the world to come? Bilaam, Israel, the Jewish people. What do you say? Should I join them? Should I convert to Judaism? Bilaam answered him, He says, seek neither their peace nor their benefit all the days. Amar-ley, Unkel has asked him, What is your punishment for what you've done? Amar-ley, He says, I am punished in boiling semen. As a rule, punishment is meted out as a measure for measure. That is, the punishment reflects the nature of the crime.
Bilaam suggested that Balak take the Moabite women to seduce the Jewish men. So Bilaam was therefore punished by the same punishment for the acts that he did. How did he get the Jewish people to sin? With the men being seduced by the Moabite, by the Midianite women. So this was his punishment, that this is how he was. Ozal, Askei, Benegi, Deleposhe, Israel. Unkel then went and raised the sinners of Israel through necromancy. Amar-ley, this is Jewish sinners. Amar-ley, Man, Choshe, Bahu, Alma.
It's very interesting, it doesn't say their names. Why doesn't it say their names? Not to embarrass further, not to embarrass them further. Man, Choshe, Bahu, Alma, who is prominent in the world to come? Amar-ley, Yisroel. Ma'u, La'adbu, Keibuhu, what do you say? Should I join them? Should I convert to Judaism? Amar-ley, they answered him. Tovasom, Derosh, Ra'asom, Lo-Sidrosh. Seek their benefit, do not seek their harm. Why? Because it says, Kol-o-no-ge-a-be-hem ki-i-lu-na-ga bi-va-vas-eino.
One who touches them is like one who touches the pupil of the eye. Whomever harms the Jewish people harms themselves. This, if the Jewish people are harmed, the light of the world dims. Thus, one who harms the Jewish people will suffer a loss of vision as if his eye had been injured. So, we do say that the term apple of the eye is referred to Hashem looking at the Jewish people. Hashem looks at the Jewish people and he says, that's the apple of my eye.
Now, I saw a clip yesterday from a Jewish podcaster who was being interviewed. And he was talking about his non-observant lifestyle. And he was saying that basically, there are different ways that you can be Jewish. And he was talking about, I just want to do the good deeds part. I don't want to do the mitzvah part. I want to do the good deeds part. And he went on to talk about how there are people who can learn Torah and can be nasty.
I just want to be the nice guy who does acts of kindness. I don't need to follow the observance of the Torah. So, I want to address that just for a second. And that is, is that sadly, and this is to me what it looks like. I don't know this person. I've never spoken to him. But they've taken God out of Judaism. Because to do just acts of kindness means I'm going to do an act for someone else.
And hopefully, that act is something that makes them feel good. That's great. That is a mitzvah in the Torah too, by the way. But where does God get into this? How do I elevate myself beyond my physical experience in this world? The mitzvahs are a communication device between us and God. The mitzvahs are a tool for us to connect with the realms way beyond this physical world. And to exclude that from your Jewish experience is taking God out. Of course.
But in the world that we're living in, we feel like the me is essential. I am the world. And my experience is whatever I want to experience. And it's such a flawed view of what Torah is, what Judaism is, what God is. Instead of it being a tool of closeness, it's been completely removed, God, from the picture. It's the world of me. It's the world of what I want. And I think it's tragic that someone can have that view that's like,
I just want to do, what's wrong with just being a nice person? That's a great thing. There's nothing wrong. That's a mitzvah too. But you took one mitzvah and you said, this one is fine for me. The others aren't suitable for me. I don't think that there is any single Jew that God says, you know what? These mitzvahs don't apply to you. You're fine. Well, there are mitzvahs like that. Mitzvahs that are for an Israelite, they're not for a Kohen or a Levi.
And vice versa. Female, male. They have different commands. But what is a commandment? A commandment is not saying, God saying, you better do this. No. The idea, and that's why I want to change the translation, so to speak, of mitzvah. Of course, it's a command. But it's an opportunity of closeness. And you're missing the boat. People all around the world are desiring one thing. They're desiring pleasure. The greatest pleasure in the world is a closeness with God.
And I'm going to cut God out? It doesn't make any sense. The greatest pleasure in the world is having a sense of security where you know Hashem is taking care of me. Hashem will take care of my every step. Hashem will take care of every single one of my needs. He'll feed me. He'll clothe me. He'll heal me. He'll give me every one of the things that I desire and need. Hashem will do everything that it takes to bring us closer.
We just have to take a little step. I think it's such a short-sighted view, such a mistaken perspective to think that the mitzvahs don't apply. The mitzvahs do apply. The mitzvahs are relevant today as they were the day they were given at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago. All right, so the Gemara now continues. Amar-Lei, Onkelos said to him, Dinei dahu gavra b'mai? And what is that man's punishment? What's your punishment? Amar-Lei, he answered, Onkelos saying, B'tzoarotachas, I am punished in boiling feces.
De Amar-Mar, this accords with that which the master said, Kol ha'malig aldivrei chachamim nidon b'tzoa, where the Talmud says that anyone who mocks the words of the sages is punished with boiling feces. Why? This, too, is a manifestation of measure for measure. Since he despises the words of the sages, he is punished in something that is despicable by all. So the Talmud here is describing the, I would say, the journey of Onkelos. Onkelos is trying to figure out, let's figure out what's going on.
And this is an investigation, I think, that every person should make. And ask, what is life about? Ask people who are older. Ask people who are younger. Ask people who are wiser. Ask people who are from, what is your understanding of what life is? What is meaning? What is purpose? And hear what they say. Don't do the necromancing stuff. Don't get involved with that. That's forbidden in the Torah. But what's that?
So then ask them, are you confident that the world that you invested in is the right thing? And if someone will say, and I guarantee you, most people will say, I should have spent more time studying. I should have spent more time with my family. I should have spent more time on good things, not indulging myself constantly. Because this is the struggle. It's me or God. That's really, at the end of the day, that's what it boils down to.
It boils down to, is it going to be me or is it going to be God? Who's going to win this battle? And if we went on a tour, maybe Mark, maybe we should do this. We should go out there on the street and ask people, what is the purpose of life? What is the meaning? If you had to give advice to your grandchildren right now, what would you tell them to focus their life on? And let's see. Want to do that?
Want to do that? We should do. We'll do a series. All right, God willing. All right. But this is the real. Onkelos is not a Jew. He's the nephew of Titus, who destroyed the temple. And he's asking, what do you say? Oh, he sure did. In fact, not only that he converted, every single page of the Torah has the writing of Onkelos, which is the Aramaic translation of each portion in the Torah.
So not only he became a Jew, and we'll see this in a minute, but he also became a very, very, very prominent scholar, so great that a convert, his commentary is on every, you open up every single one of these chumash, you'll see the Aramaic translation on the page written by Onkelos. Targum Onkelos, the translation of Onkelos. Here, take a look here, and it'll say his name even. Says his name on every single page, Onkelos. You see that? Right there, Onkelos.
OK, the translation on every page of the chumash. The Gemara comments on a difference between the response given by Bilaam and the response given by the sinners of Israel. Toch hazi, come and see. Ma b'ein poshe Yisroel l'nevi'i u'ma so'olam ov de'avod hazar. He says, come and take a look at the difference, the contrast, between the sinners of Israel and the prophets of the idol-worshipping nations of the world. The idol of the idol-worshipping nations of the world. The sinners of Israel advised Onkelos
to go seek the benefit of the Jews, whereas Bilaam, who was a prophet of the nations of the world, advised Onkelos not to seek their benefit. What does that tell you? What does that tell you? Here, the sinners of the Jewish people are saying, go embrace, embrace it. Embrace your relationship with Hashem. And the prophets of the nations of the world are saying, no, don't do it. Don't do it. Why would Bilaam say don't do it?
Why would Tito say, oh, fame, fame? So, anybody ever heard of the term? You probably never heard of it. Misery loves comfort, right? You want to be miserable with everybody else who's miserable? Meaning, if I'm having a lousy day, I want to meet somebody else who has a lousy day, so I don't feel that bad about myself. But how about if you're able to go and find somebody who had an amazing day and they're able to inspire you
to go have an amazing day and don't sulk in your woes. Don't sulk in your sadness. Pick yourself up and start over again. Which one is more inspiring? Which one is better? As the Gemara has related, the chain of events triggered by the incident concerning Kamtza and Bar Kamtza culminated in the destruction of the temple and the Gemara concludes its account of this incident and its aftermath with the following observation. So, remember two episodes ago,
we talked about the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. You remember the story? We're there at a party and the wrong guy was invited. And he kicks him out. He says, you're my enemy, get out. He says, listen, I'll pay for my meal. Just don't embarrass me. He says, get out. He says, I'll pay for half the event. No, I'll pay for the whole event. No, get out. So, he went out to then inform, he became an informer against the Jewish people
and then the Caesar sent a choice animal which on the way back to Jerusalem, he made the animal not kosher, not suitable for an offering. And then what happened? They didn't bring the offering. And then he says, oh, you guys didn't bring my offering. Okay, I'll take revenge. And this was a terrible blow to the Jewish people because the temple was destroyed. And if you remember, we brought the Talmud about one of the Talmud here
that brought, that talked about one of the sages that was sort of saying, well, maybe we should bring the, there was a whole conversation whether or not they should bring the offering because they knew what the result could bring about. And one of the opinions was that, no, people are gonna learn that you can bring offerings that are not kosher. And so they said, maybe we kill this individual who brought it for the Caesar so that way he doesn't go back and report.
They said, no, then the people will think that, and this, according to many of our sages, was very mistaken, right? You're becoming complicated. Don't get complicated. Don't be complicated. God doesn't like a relationship that's complicated, okay? God loves simplicity. Tanya, the Brysa was taught. Omar Erebelozer, Erebelozer said, bo urei kama gdolo kocha shel bushas, come and see how great the power of shame is. She'arei siya kodesh boruch vez bar kamtza, the Holy One assisted Bar Kamtza in his plot
to take revenge for the shame to which he had been subjected. Ve'hechriv ez beso vez sorafesei cholom. And he destroyed his temple and he burned his sanctuary. Hashem didn't wanna burn his own home. It says that Hashem is like a homeless now. Imagine, Hashem is like a homeless because his temple is destroyed. It's now over 2,000 years since our temple was burnt and destroyed. Since they violated the sanctuary, since they got, the menorah's not there,
the altar's not there, the showbread is not there, none of it. We can't bring offerings. We can't go up to Jerusalem like they did on Pesach and Shavuot and Sukkot, three festivals a year, minimum. They'd bring their gifts to Jerusalem, the tithes, they'd bring it all up. It would be an amazing life. You know, you made a mistake. I'm gonna bring an offering. You'd bring the offering all the way to Jerusalem and you'd put your hands on the enemy
and say this is instead of my sin. Hashem, I sinned against you. I did this and that. Take this animal instead of taking me. And this animal was brought as an offering instead of your life being taken. The animal was taken instead. It was an atonement. Such an amazing opportunity. Such an amazing gift. We don't have that ability today. We have something instead of it, which is prayer. Our prayer serves as the offerings and we need to include it in our prayers.
In our Amidah that we say thrice daily, we say slach lano avinu kichatanu. Hashem, forgive us for we have sinned. Hashiveinu avinu, return us to come closer to you. This is part of our prayer every single day. This would happen with an offering. We would go to the temple and we'd bring an offering and that experience of being so close to the Almighty. Why would Hashem allow his own temple to be destroyed? Because this is a very important lesson for us to learn.
It's an important lesson for us to learn that we are not to shame another person. We are not to embarrass another person. We talk a lot on Tisha B'Av, on the ninth of Av, the same day that both temples were destroyed. We talk about sinat chinam, baseless hatred. I hate him because he doesn't vote like me. I hate him because he doesn't wear the clothes like me. I hate him because I'm jealous. I hate him, it's baseless.
It's not, most 99% of people in the world, you just talk to them and you'll get to like them. Just spend some time with them, right? It really is a crazy thing. Most of the people out there that we are committed to hating just have a conversation, break away the barriers that are invisible barriers, that are just made up barriers. And you'll see, everything disappears. I don't know why, I don't know why. You're such a nice person. I don't know why people told me
that you'd be a nasty person. People said you'd be the meanest boss. You're the nicest boss. You get to know people, spend time. Baseless hatred is a very terrible thing. Yeah, yeah, there is betrayal in the world. There are people who make mistakes, terrible mistakes. Sometimes they regret it, sometimes they don't because they don't realize the gravity of what they've done, the severity of what they've done. It doesn't make them evil. Yeah, some people are evil. We see over here, Titus.
We see Balaam and no remorse, no regret. And it's interesting that the next Talmud talks about why the temple was destroyed. Why are those Talmuds next to each other? What's the connection here? We have regret for the baseless hatred. We saw the punishment. Punishment was that Hashem says, I'm willing to be homeless, not for you to, for you to always remember not to shame someone else, not to embarrass somebody else. So Rabi Ochanan enumerates three incidents in which reckless actions led to disaster.
Having related the first incident, the Gemara now relates the second one. Atar-nagolah v'atar-nagolah choriv tur-malko. As a result of the incident involving a rooster and a hen, the province of Har Ha-Melech was destroyed. And this is in the mountainous region of Judah, of the tribe of Judah. What happened there? Ki havo mafkei chasono v'kaloso. When they took the bride and groom out to their wedding, mafkei kamaesu tar-nagolah v'atar-nagolah. They would bring a rooster and a hen out in front of them,
klomar, as if to say to them, pruvuk tar-nagolam, be fruitful and multiply like hens. Yom achad ahava kocholiv gundo diromoyi. One day, a band of Romans was passing by as such a ceremony was taking place. Sha'aklin hu minayu. And they took the rooster and hen from the people. Naflu alayu mikhun hu. The people fell upon the Romans and killed them. And this was a reckless thing to do. The people should have realized that a disaster might result from this. Osur amr lekesa.
The Romans reported to the Caesar, mordu b'cho Yehudoyi, the Jews have rebelled against you. Osur alayu. The Caesar came upon the Jews of Hara Melech in battle. Hava b'hu ahu bar diroma. Among the Jews was a certain man from the south of the country, Dahava kafitz milo, who would be able to jump a tremendous jump. It says a mil, a very big jump, which is 2,000 amas, a measure, the distance of 3,000 to 4,000 feet.
I don't know how a person could jump that far, but it'd be a big, he would be a, he would definitely win the Guinness Book of World Record, right, for the biggest jump. V'kotibu. And he slaughtered the Roman soldiers. Sha'akley keser le'tage v'osfeha aro. The Caesar took his crown and put it on the ground. Omer, he said in prayer, ribona da'al makule. Master of the entire world, in yicholoch, if it pleases you, lo timsere le'ahu gavra le'didei u'lomal chuse bi yodeh dechad gavra.
Do not deliver the man, Caesar, him and his kingdom into the hands of this single man, this individual. Ach shele pume libar diroma v'omar. The Southerner's mouth then brought his downfall, for he said, halo ato Elohim zanachtonu v'losetze Elohim b'tzivosenu. It is not you, O God, who has forsaken us. Do not go forth, O God, with your legions. The Southerner, relying on his own power, said that he did not require God's assistance. And we know that this is the moment of downfall
is when a person doesn't realize that everything is from Hashem. The minute we start believing in our own, that's when it all ends. And this is the same with our own success in business. This is the same with our own success in our health. This is the same, oh, me? It's because I take care of myself. It's because I'm very smart. It's because I know how to negotiate. It's because I'm clever. People attribute everything, it's my might, it's my strength, it's my intelligence.
I was listening recently to a book on the Mossad by Rafi Eitan. And the only thing that I was thinking while I was listening to these unbelievable stories, really incredible, you know, is the hand of Hashem for each and every step they took in their success. I mean, the unbelievable success of the Mossad is just like, there's no agency in the world that has had success like the Mossad, none. But the moment we start saying, kol chiva otzim yadi, that it's my strength,
it's my power, it's my ability, it's my talent, it's my skills, it's my genius, it's my intelligence, that's when we're done. That's when we're done. We have to always remember that everything, and I'm very proud that the Prime Minister of Israel, almost in every one of his speeches, he talks about siyat ad nishma, assistance from heaven. He says, baruch Hashem, blessed is Hashem. We have to recognize that, or he says, be'ezrat Hashem, with the help of Hashem, we'll succeed on this mission.
We see that before they began the 12-day war with Iran, you know what they did? You know what the ministers of the Knesset did? The members of the committee of the cabinet that is part of the war, the war decisions? They went to the kotel, they went to pray, because they realized at the end of the day, we can have all the might in the world, but without Hashem, it's not gonna help anything. And we can be like they were in 1948,
with very limited resources, and win seven armies, seven very well-armed armies. They had more planes, they had more tanks, they had more soldiers, and we still had our liberation in 1948, establishing a state of Israel. Day after it was announced that Israel was becoming its own state, they were at us, from all sides. This is not our strength, and we need to remind ourselves every day. You close a good business deal, it's Hashem that was you.
Remind yourself, you got a job, Hashem that was you. You succeed in any area, this is a constant reminder that we need to re-instill within ourselves. The Gemara asks, David nami Amarachim, but didn't David himself also say this? This is a verse in Psalms. This is a verse from the book of Psalms, which was written by King David. The Gemara says, David atmu hei ko mitma, David expressed it as a question. David was wondering why God did not come to his aid,
of his army. The Southerner, however, expressed it as a request that God not provide his assistance. It's a different way to say it, right? One is like, I don't need your help, God, thank you so much. Thanks, but no thanks. And the other is, I can't deal with that, Hashem, why didn't you help me? Because I realize that it's only from you, Hashem, that all success comes about. So the Gemara now continues the narrative. The Gemara says, all the basic, he say,
the Southerner went to the restroom. Oso duroikno shamte lekarkeshe v'nochnafshe. A snake came and disemboweled him, and he died. Omar, the Caesar said, hoyel v'esrachash l'inise, since a miracle occurred to me, ho zimno ishbekinu, I will leave the Jews alone this time. Shavkinu v'ozil, he left them and went on his way. Izdakru v'ochlu v'shasu, the Jews leaped with joy. They ate and they drank. V'adliku sharge ad ischaze bil yoyno degushpanko berochek milo. They lit so many candles that the design
of a signet ring was visible a good mile away. It was a great distance away. Omar, the Caesar said, mikhda kakhadu bi yisro, the Jewish people are mocking me. They are rejoicing over me. They're celebrating as if they defeated me. Hadar aso alay, so he attacked them again. Omar av'asu yirvasi said, tlas ma'o alfi shlifi saifo aylu l'tur malko. 300,000 sword wielding soldiers went up to Har Amalekh, to this mountain. V'katlubo tlosa yomi v'klosa leylosa. And they massacred the people for three days
and three nights. U'bahach gisa hilula v'chinge. But on the other side of the mountain, the celebration and dancing continued. Bilohavi yode haneh behaneh. And those living on the other side of the mountain did not know of the circumstances of people on the other side of the mountain. So the Gemar now just talks about how many people lived there in that area in Har Amalekh. Bila adonai v'lochamal eis kol na'os yakov. This is a verse from Lamentations.
Hashem consumed without pity all the dwellings of Jacob. Ki oso rovin om rabi ochnon, when Robin came to Babylonia from the land of Israel, he said in the name of rabi ochnon, eilu shishim ribo ayorois shahoyu lo liyanai amalekh behar amalekh. This verse is referenced to the 600,000 towns, 600,000 little towns that King Yanai had in Har Amalekh. Har Amalekh was probably a whole region of mountains. The Amar of Yehuda, Amar Ravasi of Yehuda said in the name of Ravasi,
shishim ribo ayorois shahoyu lo liyanai amalekh behar amalekh. King Yanai had 600,000 towns in Har Amalekh. V'chol achas v'achas shahoyu bo ki yotim etzraim. And every single one there was a population as large as the number of those who left Egypt. And we know that scripture states in Exodus that the number of men between the age of 20 and 60 that left Egypt was 600,000. So this was a massive population of people. Chutz mi sholosh shahoyu bo hem kiflayim ki yotim etzraim.
And there were three towns that actually had twice as large the population of those who left Egypt. Eiluhen, and these are the three towns, Kfar Bish, Kfar Shihalayim, and Kfar Dikhraya. Kfar Bish, so these three towns. Kfar Bish literally means the bad village, was so called because they did not provide a house of lodging for wayfarers. So guests would come to town. They wouldn't, this is comparable to the story of Sodom. And they discouraged wayfarers from staying in their city.
Kfar Shihalayim shahoyi separ nesoson min shahalayim. What does that mean? The village of Kress. It was called this because their village was from the sale of Kress. And then Kfar Dikhraya was called the village of males. Why was it called that? Because there, it says Omer of Eiluhen, Eiluhen says it was called that because shahoyi nesosayim, yoldos zichorim tkhila. Because their wives would bear boys first. The yoldos nekeva bachrona. And then they would give birth to girls. Viposkos.
And then they would cease to bear children. And this, it says, was a negative attribute. The Gemara teaches that the birth of a daughter is a blessing to the world. Furthermore, the Gemara states that it is a good omen to have a daughter before one has sons. Thus, the characterizations of all these towns are derogatory. In Kfar Bish, the people were not hospitable. In Kfar Shihalayim, the people's livelihood was the rather meager one of selling Kress.
And in Kfar Dikhraya, the people were not blessed with daughters. They only had daughters at the end of having children. Of their childbearing period of life. So the Gemara records a controversy about the size of Hara Melech. Omar Uloh said, L'didih chazi li hahu asra. I myself saw this mountain, Hara Melech. Va'afilu shisin rivivase kani lo makhsik. He says it doesn't even hold 600,000 people. Forget about having so many towns that have 600,000 people in it. Let alone 600,000 towns.
Omar Leahu Tzeduki L'Rebbe Hanino, one of the Sadducees said to Rebbe Hanino, Shakuri mishakrisu. You, sages, you're liars, you're lying. You teach that there were 600,000 towns in Hara Melech when in fact it's not large enough to have 600,000 people. Or 600,000 reeds, he says. Omar Leahu, Rebbe Hanino answered him, Be'eretz Hatzvi Ksefwe. We know about the land of Israel, it's referred to as the land of the deer. It's compared to the deer. Eretz Hatzvi. Why?
It says in Daniel chapter 11, verse 16, in context, this phrase is taken to mean in the land of God's desire. What does it mean, land of deer? Land, Hatzvi. So the Tzvi, the deer, its hide is so, it shrinks so much once you take it off, you can't put it back on. But from within, it keeps on expanding. So you look at the land of Israel and you say this little land of Israel, how can this little land of Israel do so much?
How can this little land of Israel hold so much? How can this little land of Israel produce so much and innovate so much? Sages tell us, because you're looking from the outside. When you look from the inside, it keeps on expanding from inside. It keeps on growing. It's not only in the physical sense. It says in the temple that when the people stood in the temple, they would stand like sardines, one on top of the other. And then, when they needed to bow down
during the service of the temple, they would all bow down. There was enough room for everyone. So the Talmud asks, how's that possible? It says, because it has the laws of Eretz Katzvi, it expands like the hide of a deer. From within, it expands, not from outside. So the Talmud here says, ma tzvi zeh ein oro maxik es psoro, just like a deer. That after it had been flayed, its skin is not large enough to accommodate its flesh, its body, af Eretz Yisroel.
So too, in the case of the land of Israel, b'zman she yoshvan oleo ravcha, when the people live there, it expands and accommodates them. U b'zman she ein yoshvan oleo gamdo, when they don't live in the land of Israel, it contracts and it doesn't have anything. You know the famous letter written by, who was that? Mark Twain, thank you. Thank you, Brenda. So Mark Twain, one of the things that he writes, one of the things that he writes
is that you see a desolate land. The land didn't grow anything, anything, when the Jewish people weren't there. You go look at the land of Israel today. Go, go look, it's the most, I was there about two years ago, I went on a special trip, and we went on these jeeps all the way up north and the top of the Golan Heights, like all the way deep in, right on the Syrian border. And our driver was the tour guide
and he was telling us the most remarkable thing. He says, all of this used to be nothing, rubble. Today it's producing the finest truffles. The finest truffles in the world are coming from the Golan Heights. He says the altitude, the temperature, everything is so conducive to growing these truffles and it's so profitable, it's the hottest thing today. Everybody wants to get their hands on truffles. They're producing it. Everywhere, as far as the eye can see is truffle farms. It's the most unbelievable thing.
You go look at the competitions around the world for wine. Israel's getting top scores on every wine. It's amazing. What's with us? We continue, it's all exactly, it's Hashem that when we are, when we're committed to our relationship with God, Hashem sends us blessings and Hashem protects us. By the way, all of those farms could have been destroyed with one ballistic missile from Iran. All of them, gone. But Hashem protected us. We can't take Hashem out of the picture.
She'en yoshvin oleho gamdo. When the Jewish people do not live there, when they do not prosper there, when they do not do acts of kindness, when they do not learn Torah there, when they're not being an example for the world, then it shrinks. I always, I've shared this many times. You know that Israel has a special unit that is around the clock. At Ben-Gurion Airport, that wherever there's a disaster around the world, they're ready to go with food,
with a field hospital, with, it's unbelievable. Who else has that? We're ready to help. Haiti, the first people that landed in Haiti were the Israelis. Giving medical assistance, giving food assistance, every other type of assistance. You're gonna search and rescue. There are teams dedicated for this. That's what it means to be a people of God. That's what it means to be a people that are recognizing we're here on a mission. We're here, we have a responsibility. All right, my dear friends,
we'll continue God willing next week. I look forward. Have a magnificent Shabbos. You ask a great question, Ed. You say, but doesn't God have temples? You say, God is homeless, right? That only tells us how important it is when we're in temple. When we go to synagogue, it's not a place to meet our friends and schmooze with them. That's the place to communicate with God because that's taking place of God's home in the temple in Jerusalem.
Now, again, God doesn't need a home. God is not a physical being. God doesn't need a pillow and blanket. But the idea, the concept of this is the place where we communicate with God. And that's why going to the Kotel is such a powerful thing. Going to the Western Wall. But we don't need to. When we daven, when we pray, wherever we are, we're always facing towards Jerusalem because we're sending our prayers that way, eastward if we're in the United States.
And because that's the gateway to heaven. So yeah, Hashem is coming to our synagogues, but it's a mikdash me'at. It's a microscopic temple. It's not the same temple like we had in Jerusalem or the temple that we had in Shiloh.

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